Friday, September 30, 2005

My friend Michiel sent me a link to the Kat's Whiskers the other day. How gorgeous is this kitty? I haven't read too much of this site yet because it was difficult to pull myself away from this lovely kitty. I did, however, make a brief stop to see the kittens. Adorable.

Monday, September 26, 2005

When 135 metres above the River Thames, what do most people do? They do things like take lots of photos and say 'oh, look at that!' and 'what a great view'. While I was very much enjoying the view, I thought it would be cool to do a solve or two. Remembering the photo that Dan Harris had posted of himself cubing in the Eye, I thought I'd better get one too. When mentioning this Peter, he reminded me that his digital camera had video capabilities, so we decided to video a solve as well.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Peter and I and a friend went on the London eye this afternoon. Despite having lived in London for over 9 months, this is the first time Peter or I had been on it.

The London Eye is currently the largest observation wheel in the world and stands at 135 metres (443 feet). 1,700 tonnes of steels was used in the construction of the Eye, and it has 32 capsules which can carry 15,000 passengers per day.

As discussed in this news article, the gist of the study can really be summed up by the following:

"Overall, the results showed that incompetence is even worse than it appears to be, and forms a sort of unholy trinity of cluelessness. The incompetent don't perform up to speed; don't recognise their lack of competence; and don't even recognise the competence of other people."

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

"We don't know what they were thinking when they made the Crazy Cat Keychain. When you press the kitty's belly, it doesn't just go "meow." Instead, it sounds like some truly insane individual pretending to be a cat."

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Tonight I went to the monthly puzzle meeting at Lockside Lounge bar at Camden Lock. I'd been meaning to get along to one of these puzzle gatherings all year, but hadn't yet made it to one. When I heard that the theme for this month's meeting was Rubik's Cubes I knew that I just had to go!

The monthly puzzle meetings are organised by the nice people at Villages Games. Villages Games is lovely little puzzle store in Camden Lock. They sell lots of different types of puzzles, and also board games, books about puzzles, cards and card games, etc. If you're into puzzles and in London then you should definitely visit this shop.

Most of the speedcubers from the UK speedcubing weekend came to Camden tonight too. The only one we were missing was Duncan! We had a little friendly competition during the evening. Obviously Dan won (18.xx average). I was pretty happy coming second with a 30.xx average. Paul came third with a 34.xx average. Paul did some really fast solves during the competition, but he also did some very not-so-fast solves which really killed his average.

It was definitely a fun night and I plan to go to more of the Camden Lock puzzle meetings, even when they are not cube themed! :)

Saturday, September 03, 2005

I came across Puzzling World a while ago when Googling puzzle sites. It was not quite what I expected, but looks kinda cool anyway.

Puzzling World is in Wanaka, New Zealand. It has a variety of puzzles and mazes, including a maze which is two storeys high and has 1.5 kilometres of passages (for my American friends, 1.5 kms is a little under 1 mile).

I've never been to New Zealand*, but if I do I shall try to make it to Wanaka so I can visit Puzzling World. If there were ever a New Zealand Rubik's Championship, this would be a great venue for it.

(* This is not entirely true, I have actually been to Auckland International Airport several times on the way to other locations. This doesn't really count though. All I saw was the inside of the airport while changing planes.)

Friday, September 02, 2005

Five little kitties were accidentally FedExed from South Carolina to Vermont. The poor little kitties spent two days in a hot stuffy box! Amazingly, they arrived in Vermont alive and are actually doing fine.

According to the news article, the person who FedExed the kitties was just careless. Apparently he had sealed up the package without properly checking what was inside.

Everyone who knows kitties knows that they like to hide in boxes. Hopefully these kitties will protest loudly next time they are packaged in a box!